Winklevoss brothers are going into outer space on Virgin Galactic, paying in Bitcoin

Posted Mar 5, 2014

Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, the twin brothers that are known for the court case about the founding of Facebook and major Bitcoin advocates, are going to travel into outer space on the Virgin Galactic. The brothers are going to pay for the ride using Bitcoin.

Happy to announce that @winklevoss and I have used #bitcoin to become @virgingalactic astronauts number 700 and 701 http://t.co/JSruUeb0Kh

— Tyler Winklevoss (@tylerwinklevoss) March 5, 2014

Below is a blog post that the brothers wrote in regards to the trip:

Cameron and I have decided to use our bitcoin to take the plunge, or rather propulsion, into space. Why? Because Bitcoin and Sir Richard Branson?s Virgin Galactic are two technologies that meaningfully represent our focus at Winklevoss Capital – the reduction of pain-points and friction in an effort to build a better world.

Humans have a long tradition of exploring and forging new frontiers, both physically and metaphorically. In the Middle Ages, Marco Polo?s writings – which recounted his 24 years of travel and trade on the Silk Road ? built a new and lasting level of economic and cultural awareness between Europe and Asia. 200 years later, they would inspire 15th century explorer Christopher Columbus to search for a shorter route to the Far East by sea. While Columbus did not achieve his original goal, he did manage to bring word of a new landmass back to Europe, which planted the seeds of hope and possibility in the minds of persecuted Pilgrims, who fled to and settled North America 100 years later. Such stories of inadvertent and iterated accomplishment are all too familiar in the spheres of exploration and innovation. They demonstrate how the building blocks of human discovery are not necessarily brilliance and perfection, but rather, the courage to fail and persistence to keep on trying.

By the early 16th century, Vasco da Gama would chart a maritime route from Europe to India via the Cape of Good Hope, while astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus would argue that the earth did not stand still, but instead revolved around the Sun and simultaneously its own axis. Ferdinand Magellan?s expedition would successfully circumnavigate the globe, confirming that the world was indeed round, not flat, and shepherd in an epoch of post-medieval thought.